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Gospels are a genre of ancient literature concerning the life of Jesus. The word derives from the Old English word for " Good News", a translation of the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion. This refers to the 'good news' being told—that Jesus has redeemed a fallen world. Each of the books reveals, by preaching and reinterpretation, the story of Jesus Christ's life, the "Good News" about Christ's life and presence. The word gospel can also have a narrower meaning, especially when used by evangelical Christians, to mean the specific actions of Christ that are necessary for salvation.
The use of gospel (or its Greek equivalent) to denote a particular genre of writing dates back to the 2nd century. It was clearly used to denote a genre in Justin Martyr (c. 155) and more ambiguously so earlier in Ignatius of Antioch (c. 117).
Of the many gospels written in antiquity, exactly four gospels came to be accepted as part of the New Testament or canonicalA Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship b, possibly as early as Irenaeus of Lyons, c. 185Alternate uses, see Number 185''. Events Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus. Irenaeus writes that there are only four Gospels (approximate date). Births Origen, Christian apologist (approximate date) Deaths S.
Among the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke include many of the same passages in the life of Jesus and sometimes use identical or very similar wording. John, on the other hand, expresses itself in a different style and relates the same incidents in a different way, and is often full of more encompassing theological and philosophical messages.
The parallels between the first three Gospels are so telling that many scholars have investigated the relationship between them. In order to study them more closely, German scholar JJ GriesbachJohann Jakob Griesbach ( January 4, 1745 March 24, 1812), German biblical critic, was born at Butzbach, a small town in the state of Hesse, where his father, Konrad Kaspar (1705-1777), was pastor. He was educated at Frankfurt, and at the universities of T ( 1776) arranged the first three gospels in a three-column table called a synopsis. As a result, the Matthew, Mark, and Luke have come to be known as the Synoptic Gospels, and the question of the reason for this similarity, and the relationship between these Gospels more generally, is known as the synoptic problem.
Many solutions to the synoptic problem have been proposed, but the dominant view is that Mark is the first Gospel, with Matthew and Luke borrowing passages both from that Gospel and from another, lost source, known as Q. This view is known as the "Two Source" hypothesis.
Another theory which addresses the synoptic problem is the Farrer theory. This theory maintains Markan Priority (that Mark was written first) and dispenses with the need for a theoretical document Q. What Austin Farrer has argued is that Luke used Matthew as a source as well as Mark, explaining the similarities between them without having to refer to a hypothetical document.
Estimates for the dates when the gospels were written vary significantly, and the evidence for any of the dates is scanty. Conservative scholars tend to date earlier than others. The following are mostly the date ranges given by the late Raymond E. Brown, in his book An Introduction to the New Testament, as representing the general scholarly consensus in 1996: